Who Else Wants More Native Manual-Focus Lenses?

I must confess I am not that interested in expanding my lenses with auto-focus versions. Auto-focus is beneficial for zooms but less so for primes from my standpoint.

I am just as happy with manual focusing in most cases. I have several adapted lenses I love but I would like smaller native versions.

And as a casual photographer I further confess I want inexpensive (read: cheap) lenses with good but not necessarily professional build quality (e.g. Nikon E series). Voightlander lenses are too large and too expensive for me. The Samyang 7.5 strikes the perfect balance and would love to see them make even more.

And as a casual photographer I further confess I want inexpensive (read: cheap) lenses with good but not necessarily professional build quality (e.g. Nikon E series). Voightlander lenses are too large and too expensive for me. The Samyang 7.5 strikes the perfect balance and would love to see them make even more.

I don't see having AF as a negative (quite the opposite in fact), but what I would love to see is more lenses with an improved manual focus experience. Think something like the Olympus 12mm with its unique manual/auto focus ring.

I'm perfectly ok with focus by wire if done well, but the Oly 12 is the only native AF lens I've used that comes close to the tactile feel and feedback of working with the Voigtlander 25mm f/0.95 or an adapted manual lens.

I'm curious, what do you see as the advantage of a MF legacy lens over an adapted lens for what you are doing? If you're willing to manually focus then I should think adjusting the aperture wouldn't be that big a deal. Also, the native lenses would be a lot more expensive. Also, I don't see m43 as a a particularly good platform for MF lenses anyway so I'd have to say that I wouldn't be interested.

I still want automatic aperture control (though I confess I shoot 95% of the time in aperture priority).

Size and cost savings by eliminating auto-focus as well as targeting the sensor size are my primary goals.

I would have loved to have gotten the new Oly 75/1.8 but it is out of my price range. Instead I picked up a Minolta 85/2 which I would say is just as sharp from my own testing. A native 85/2 from Samyang I would venture could be smaller than either.

Adapted lenses have the burden of being designed for 35mm, not m43 so there is a lot of wasted glass. Interestingly the Minolta 85/2 with adapter is about the same dimensions and weight as the Oly 75/1.8. Design an manual focus 85/2 for m43 and it should be smaller than either.

In a few years I hope to retire but I expect to be cash poor and whatever I get now I would like it to last me the rest of my life. Simpler designs without little motors are more likely to last longer with lower life-cycle maintenance.

Specifically I would like to have a distance-calibrated focus ring or, better, a MF distance readout in the viewfinder. This would allow setting hyperfocal distance and also would be helpful when the autofocus latches onto something between me and my intended subject. The former is helpful for landscapes and interiors, and the latter for wild animal photography. I have a very nice photo of a jackal lying in some tall grass and looking at me, but it is the intervening grass and not the jackal that is sharp. If the VF had showed me "10'" I could have easily turned a MF ring to make the number "12'" and gotten the shot.

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